It is anticipated that some wireless communications protocols will support multiple uplink component carriers where a compliant user terminal, also referred to as user equipment (UE), will be able to transmit multiple subframes on multiple carriers. One such protocol is 3GPP LTE-Advanced (LTE-A). Existing physical layer acknowledgement schemes for LTE Release 8 can be used to acknowledge data signaling from only a single Release 8 compliant carrier per UE.
If the acknowledgement signaling for multiple uplink component carriers is handled by a single downlink carrier, the existing Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) resources specified in LTE Release 8 at 3GPP TS 36.211 Section 6.9 and 3GPP TS 36.213 Section 9.1.2 may be inadequate to acknowledge the uplink signaling on the additional component carriers.
The various aspects, features and advantages of the disclosure will become more fully apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon careful consideration of the following Drawings and accompanying Detailed Description.